A. Banks

Was “A” for Albert?

Banks was one of two Pullman Company sleeping-car porters who were working on the train’s rear sleeper, Calmar. Norfolk & Western only recorded his first initial, last name, and that he was a “colored porter” on its official report of the train’s occupants. The company did not include his hometown on the report.¹ The Calmar sleeper was headed to Washington, DC, and there was an Albert Banks listed as a porter living at 331 3d sw in the District of Columbia’s 1890 city directory.² There is no information to confirm that Albert Banks was the A. Banks working on the train.

Do you think you know who the A. Banks was on the train that night? If you think he might have been an ancestor of yours, or if you have some additional information that might help identify Banks, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Sources

1. Fourteenth Annual Report of The Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia, J.H. O’Bannon Superintendent of Public Printing, Richmond, VA, 1890: p. xlv. http://books.google.com/books?id=CFopAAAAYAAJ
   
2. William H. Boyd, Directory of the District of Columbia, 1890, p. 189.